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My new 3 watt dead-silent USB Linux music server. Pics Added. - Page 5

post #61 of 113
3/21/09 at 11:41am
Thread Starter 
A quick reply as I am not home...

You might want to consider buying the the newer Alix 2d2. I am currently using this as my "stable" server and have relegated the older 3c2 for experimental testing.

The Alix 2d2 is nicer because it keeps all the connectors (USB, LAN) at the back of the unit, and the LED's up front. The 3c2 has the USB ports up front & the LED's in the back. It could make for routing the USB cable to the DAC more difficult or require a longer USB cable.

With the 2d2's simple black aluminum case I have the status LED's up front and viewable from the listening seat. I can also use shorter length USB cables, i.e., with the ports facing from the back of the ALIX and USB DAC.

I'll post my mpd.conf when I get home.
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post #62 of 113
3/21/09 at 12:21pm
This is indeed a much nicer solution. Thanks for the hint. I had already ordered the other board but I could change my order for the 2d2.
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post #63 of 113
3/21/09 at 4:51pm
Very interesting ideas and practical solutions here.
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post #64 of 113
3/23/09 at 1:36pm
Thread Starter 
Here's my mpd.conf.
LL
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post #65 of 113
3/23/09 at 5:18pm
Thanks. As soon as I receive the Alix board I will start trying to configure it. I might then ask you some more questions...
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post #66 of 113
3/23/09 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by siriri View Post
Thanks. As soon as I receive the Alix board I will start trying to configure it. I might then ask you some more questions...
Ask away...
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post #67 of 113
3/31/09 at 4:26am
I received the Alix board. It's a nice little black box.

Concerning Voyage Linux, which version did you use, the latest stable version (0.5.2) or the latest development version (0.6.1) ?

You wrote in your first post that the Voyage Linux developers prepared for you a kernel compiled with sound, USB, and ALSA modules. Do the above mentionned versions include this modules or would it be necessary to ask the developers again to prepare such a modified kernel ?

In advance, thanks for your answer.
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post #68 of 113
3/31/09 at 1:49pm
Thread Starter 
[QUOTE=siriri;5568989]I received the Alix board. It's a nice little black box.[/quote

Congrats!

Quote:
Originally Posted by siriri View Post
Concerning Voyage Linux, which version did you use, the latest stable version (0.5.2) or the latest development version (0.6.1) ?
0.6.1 should be fine; you get a more recent version of MPD as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by siriri View Post
You wrote in your first post that the Voyage Linux developers prepared for you a kernel compiled with sound, USB, and ALSA modules. Do the above mentionned versions include this modules or would it be necessary to ask the developers again to prepare such a modified kernel ?
No need, it's included in their standard shipping kernels from now on as per my request.


Before you proceed read the installation Wiki here: installation [Voyage Linux]

A hint: if you would like to use GRUB as your boot loader and have a compact flash card bigger than 1GB, you have to partition to a smaller 512MB size. With LILO one can proceed with a bigger compact flash.
For an MPD server you will not be using more than about 256MB with some additional packages installed.
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post #69 of 113
3/31/09 at 2:37pm
Cool ! Thanks for your answer. I will now start configuring the whole setup.

By the way, I put some photos of the Alix board here.
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post #70 of 113
3/31/09 at 2:43pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by siriri View Post
Cool ! Thanks for your answer. I will now start configuring the whole setup.

By the way, I put some photos of the Alix board here.
The blog is sweet.

Another hint: Don't install the board into the enclosure until everything is up an running for at least a couple of days. Use the bubble wrap under the board.
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post #71 of 113
4/1/09 at 5:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Planar_head View Post
256mb of memory for windows isn't enough, even a striped down version.
Nonsense, my stripped down WinXP installation (acting as a router) is consuming ~95MB (no swap) of RAM with most useless services still running. The installation is less then 400MB on a FAT disk (i.e.; uncompressed, no journal, no SSD wear (if you believe in that, i don't, but thats another story)).
Not speaking from experience with the Geode's, but I won't be surprised that a average nLite'd/XPLite'd Windows XP would run just fine. And by the way, I could be wrong, but I thought I had an PIII 500~600Mhz running WinXP back in those days, don't know for sure though . (also, if i remember correctly Geode's have an higher IPC compared to the PIII's)

Regarding the OP's awesome device; This really makes me interested, especially since the price isn't too high (considering the endless possibilities). It could also serve as an pretty neat router/firewall if i'd stopped using it actively (although the lack of gigabit is quite a bummer).
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post #72 of 113
4/1/09 at 7:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Nobax View Post
Nonsense, my stripped down WinXP installation (acting as a router) is consuming ~95MB (no swap) of RAM with most useless services still running. The installation is less then 400MB on a FAT disk (i.e.; uncompressed, no journal, no SSD wear (if you believe in that, i don't, but thats another story)).
Not speaking from experience with the Geode's, but I won't be surprised that a average nLite'd/XPLite'd Windows XP would run just fine. And by the way, I could be wrong, but I thought I had an PIII 500~600Mhz running WinXP back in those days, don't know for sure though . (also, if i remember correctly Geode's have an higher IPC compared to the PIII's)
Please don't take any of the following as me poo-pooing Windows. I firmly believe in using the best tool for the job.

There are several reason why one would/could not use Windows Xp on this particular board, even if you really wanted to. Assuming 256MB RAM was enough you would still have the issue of WIndows XP running with a GUI by default. Our ALIX board has no VGA. With Voyage Linux SSH is started as a service and we log into it remotely for configuration. Another issue would be the compact flash:Windows XP runs under FAT or NTFS, and there are no options (correct me if I'm wrong) to run the entire OS in RAM like Voyage Linux, thus using very small 512MB compact flash cards.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Nobax View Post

Regarding the OP's awesome device; This really makes me interested, especially since the price isn't too high (considering the endless possibilities). It could also serve as an pretty neat router/firewall if i'd stopped using it actively (although the lack of gigabit is quite a bummer).
I hope you give it a go. The more users out there the better.

BTW, I have my WRAP board (the precursor to the ALIX) connected to a gigabit switch running Monowall firewall/router software. I get gigabit speed between my laptop and desktop just fine.

Cheers
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post #73 of 113
4/2/09 at 8:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nyc_paramedic View Post
A hint: if you would like to use GRUB as your boot loader and have a compact flash card bigger than 1GB, you have to partition to a smaller 512MB size. With LILO one can proceed with a bigger compact flash.
For an MPD server you will not be using more than about 256MB with some additional packages installed.
So if I have a 1 GB flash card, is it not necessary to partition to a smaller size ?
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post #74 of 113
4/2/09 at 11:20am
I started installing Voyage Linux, but I'm not able to copy the files to the CF-card. After stage 6 of the installation process I get the following error message :

"sh: line 81: rsync: command not found
Fatal Error: Failed to copy files!"

You can have a look here where I wrote down what I did, step by step.

Do you have an idea what the problem could be ? As I told beforehand, I'm a Linux newbie and I work with trial and error, so there could be a problem somewhere in the middle of the process.
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post #75 of 113
4/2/09 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by siriri View Post
I started installing Voyage Linux, but I'm not able to copy the files to the CF-card. After stage 6 of the installation process I get the following error message :

"sh: line 81: rsync: command not found
Fatal Error: Failed to copy files!"

You can have a look here where I wrote down what I did, step by step.

Do you have an idea what the problem could be ? As I told beforehand, I'm a Linux newbie and I work with trial and error, so there could be a problem somewhere in the middle of the process.
Try the command: apt-get install rsync
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